$2.3M FEMA grants awarded to Ga. agencies for generators

Fifty-nine generators will serve as backup power for counties along the Georgia coastline to ensure that critical facilities stay running during a natural disaster

By News Staff

SAVANNAH, Ga. — A 2.3 million FEMA grant distributed to several coastal counties in Georgia will go towards the purchase of 59 fixed generators.

The generators will be housed in Brantley, Camden and Liberty Counties, the Southside Fire and EMS with Chatham County, Garden City, Glennville, Blackshear, Savannah, Waycross, Thunderbolt and Tybee Island, WTVM reported.

FEMA generators are being unloaded from a C-17 military cargo plane. (Photo/Wikimedia Commons)

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"The grant is critically important," Tybee Island Mayor Jason Buelterman said. "We just had to outlay $26,000 to have back up pumps for our sewage locations. If we have generators for those when the power goes, out we won't need those so it will be big savings for the citizens of Tybee. We also can't have our 911 center go out when there's an extended power outage."

Mayor Buelterman and Liberty County EMA Director Larry Logan said the generators would serve as backup power to ensure that the critical facilities stay running.

"We've got to make sure we have power at our police facility, our fire facility, so as we've seen these hurricanes come with more frequency the last few years," Buelterman said. "It just shows how badly this grant is needed."